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Gold Fields said in August it’s embarking on yet another turnaround
plan at the operation, its only one left in South Africa. South Deep’s
disappointing performance has been a drag on the company for years and
management is aware that investors are getting fed up, Holland said in
an interview.

“They are now very impatient, and one can understand it but I think
we need to calmly look where we are and evaluate the best way forward,”
he said. “There is a large resource base there, it’s well-drilled and we
have spent a lot on infrastructure development costs. We are not far
away, we just need more time.”

South Deep is the world’s second-largest known body of gold-bearing
ore but output targets have been repeatedly missed. The company has sunk
more than R9bn into the mine in addition to
the R22bn rand it paid to buy the asset in 2006.

The next milestone will be the announcement of a new plan in February
and the company will probably need about 18 months after that to assess
whether it’s working, Holland said.

To be sure, South Deep’s challenges aren’t unique in South Africa and
other gold producers aren’t making money either thanks to persistently
high costs, Holland said.

The country’s deep, aging mines and labor intensive mining methods
keep pressure on expenses and South African gold production fell for a
10th consecutive month in July. The decline is being compounded by a
shortage of investment in exploration, Holland said.